AuthorTopic: What do law schools look for? (Read 1096 times)

Do law schools look at trends in grades as do many other graduate schools? Is a transcript with high marks in upper level classes looked upon in a more favorable light than a transcript that has poor marks in junior/senior level classes and higher marks in lower level classes? How much time is actually dedicated by the school to looking over the Law School application by the school? Do they simply take the top apps or is it somewhat holistic?

It's better to have an upward curve than a downward one, and schools will note that, but at the end of the day, your GPA is your GPA. If there's a good enough reason to look past it, a law school will, but most people don't have a Nobel prize on their resume. At least if they're telling the truth!

Groundhog is correct an upward curve is great, but in reality law schools look to the total numbers i.e. overall college GPA and LSAT. They are looking at thousands of applications and transcripts etc from personal experience I imagine when thousands of papers are on your desk and an overall number summarizes each one you still look straight to that number if you have a 4.0 and an LSAT score that is well over the numbers for X school, no criminal convictions, a resume not drawn in crayon, and a semi-coherent personal statement your in.

If on the other hand you have a 2.0 and 140 LSAT an outstanding resume and a touching personal statement your probably not getting in anywhere.

If your right on the cusp and I mean right on the cusp which I imagine 50 or so applications are every year they may take some real time to really analyze everything, but generally speaking it is all a numbers game.

Go to lawschoolnumbers.com to see the reality of that. If you have done something exceptional i.e. Nobel Peace Prize, won the Heisman Trophy, were a Navy Seal, wrote a best-selling novel, or something along those lines the numbers may not play a big role, but 99.9% of people don't have anything that is something that will simply grab an admissions committees attention.